Four years ago, the conservative New Hampshire Union Leader refused to publish a wedding announcement for two men, saying that “it would be hypocritical of us to do so, given our belief that marriage is and needs to remain a social and civil structure between men and women.”

Married couple Peter Richard and Dana Dexter

Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid told readers in 2010 that “we are not ‘anti-gay.’ We are for marriage remaining the important man-woman institution it has always been.”

Did the paper change its policy? I asked publisher McQuaid. He replied:

Social announcements are now paid submissions, no longer an editorial call. This happened three or four years ago. The same-sex announcement to which you refer may have been the first one submitted since the change.